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Strategic Change Management., I wrote before about the “First Five Percent. That’s my approach to strategic change management that says the quality of the first five percent determines what happens in the rest of the process.

I was in Los Angeles last week, working with a large association, on a strategic plan for their organization. It was the beginning the a process to create a high-performing organization in less than a year. One of the practices of the First Five Percent is to allow as many persons to participate as early as possible.. You never can tell who has the great ideas. Exposing more members at the very beginning, will enable you discover the choicest brain power and latent intellegence as past as possible..

There were 300 board members, chapter leaders, and local officers in the room. The plan was not rigid.. Depending on how the first exercise went, I was prepared to go in different directions to assure high levels of participation. The first question I posed was this: âThink about where you want the association to be in two years. Tell me the specific changes you want to see and your measures of success.

They worked on this question for 60 minutes and wrote down their responses on flip chart paper. Every cluster made an announcement right away.. I then asked them: What did you hear yourselves say? Did you have meting of minds?

Everyone called out what they heard. ” Have a membersip drive.” “Fill our vacancies,” ” Organize a new commercial model.” Every one was animated.”

” How would you measure success”? I asked. They shouted out what they’d heard. I lised 4 exact measures of success. I asked if they all agreed. Everyone raised their hands.

They took a break for lunch. While everyone stopped talking, I formulated my next course of action.. I examined all their briefs, and concluded all I have to do is to take advantge of their drive.. I listed 12 goals on flip chart paper. Each goal came from them, like âDouble our membershipâ or âIncrease our political clout. The. After they returned from lunch, I said: “Take a look around the room. These are your goals. Find a goal you feel passionate about. Go stand by that goal. For those of you who are passionate about some other goal, there are blank pieces of paper.â

The group divided itself into teams around each goal. I required every group to execute a procedure for every goal to be followed by a demonstration.. During the report-outs, I identified key issues that needed to be resolved and facilitated a discussion around each issue. When people got on a tangent, I used the two-minute rule (“Anything important can be said in two minutes”) to steer the conversation back in the right direction. We wrapped it up at 4 p.m.

I asked them to explain what they liked about the meeting. ” The atmosphere was envigorating.” one person commented.. “Excellent ideas!” Several people said. “Your guidance,” someone said. “The two minute axiom!” ” many shouted. “We’re excited to be building our organization,” a woman said.

“And what change would you like to see?” I enquired.

So we have to go away!” a man shouted. Everyone laughed.

Next blog article: Our Change Management Model

About the Author: Eric Douglas is LRI’s senior executive business consultant with expertise change management, leadership development, and strategic planning. His latest leadership book is called Leading at Light Speed.

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